Dear Gifford:
Has your friend looked at the meticulously documented:
"The North American Buffalo: A Critical Study of the Spiecies in its Wild State"
by Frank Gilbert Roe, University of Toronto Press, Second Edition 1972, 991
pages.   Chapter X is devoted to "The Buffalo Habitat and Its Historical
Chronology : East of the Mississippi River."
A little more recently published with a current to 1980 listing of 14C dates is:
"North American Bison: Their Classification and Evolution" by Jerry N. McDonald,
University of California Press 1981.   The geographic listing of dated bison
sites  (Appendix 2) doesn't include many protohistoric/historic dates east of the
Mississippi River, but this might be a good place to start looking for more
recent excavated reports if this isn't adequate for your friend's purposes.  Hope
this helps.
Mark Henderson
[log in to unmask]
Ely, Nevada USA

Chris Murphy wrote:

> I recall references to small herds of bison (or buffalo) in the early contact
> period.  I believe that these references may have been in one or more of John
> Swanton's works.  More recently, Charles Hudson has several references to
> sightings during the same period in the index of his The Southeastern Indians
> (Univ. of Tenn Press, 1976).  I'm sure there must be others.  Good luck.
>
>     Christopher Murphy, Ph.D.
>     Department of History & Anthropology
>     Augusta State University
>     Augusta, GA  30904
>
> Gifford J Waters wrote:
>
> > A friend of mine is looking for archaeological references documenting the
> > presence of buffalo east of the Mississippi River, primarily being
> > concerned with the late pre-contact period.  He would also be interested
> > in any early historical documents that might refer to buffalos being
> > present east of the Mississippi.  Please reply back if you know of any
> > such sources.
> > Thank you,
> > Gifford Waters
> > Dept. of Anthropology
> > University of Florida
> > Gainesville, FL  32611